Deaf By Fire
by BCDevon
Summary: Trapped in a burning building with no way out Chance struggles to survive. Complete.


Deaf By Fire

{Chance} He awoke in darkness broken by flickering lights. Something was burning and he coughed as the smoke half choked him. He was lying up a flight of stairs and for a minute he could not place where he was or what he had been doing. Then he realized he was lying on top of someone. He rolled over, recognizing the woman he had been protecting. He had covered her as a loud explosion had thrown them up the stairs. In the light that was provided from the flickering flames he determined that she was breathing fine. She was face down on the stairs and he rolled her over carefully. She was out cold, which had probably happened when they had both been thrown up the stairs from the force. He quickly assessed their situation. Smoke was coming up the stairwell and the flames were getting closer every minute. They had to get away from the flames, and the choking smoke. The only way out right now was up. He attempted to stand, swayed for a second, then broke into a coughing fit as the air up higher was much worse. It took him a moment to realize that while he was seeing flames, he heard nothing. Alarmed, he reached up to check and see if his wire was there. Yup, still there. 'Not good' he thought. If Winston was talking to him he couldn't hear a thing. That was a problem to deal with later. He stooped down and reached for the woman. He couldn't remember her name at the moment, but he knew it was important that she survived. Beyond that his mind was blank. He lifted her up in his arms and slowly started up the stairwell. The door above them was locked, so he continued up the stairwell to the last door. Breathing was getting harder by the moment and his eyes were watering from the sting of the smoke. The top door was also locked but several well aimed kicks at the lock finally broke the latch and the door splintered open. It was dark inside, but there was very little smoke inside. He eased in the door which opened to a hallway of sorts. He closed the door behind him by using his shoulder. It didn't close all the way, but it would stop the smoke for a short time. Hopefully long enough for him to figure a way out of this. He set his burden down in the last room in the corridor, and leaned her gently against the wall. Her name was Chloe. Chloe Stoddard. Names and faces came flashing back to him. He was trying to protect her from a coworker. She was a simple employee of the UPS shipping center located in Atlanta, Georgia. She had come across shipments that had arrived and then 'disappeared' into thin air. The disappearance had been linked to her coworker, a Samuel Webb. Webb had been involved in stolen antiquities that were being shipped into the country illegally. Chloe had accidentally stumbled into the mess and her husband Gaylon had hired him to protect her. 'So much for protecting' Chance thought as he scanned the room. The smoke was getting thicker. They had to find a way out. They were on the top floor of the building which appeared to be a storage room of some sort. There had to be a roof access point somewhere. If only he could communicate with Winston, but all he heard was a constant roaring in his ears.

{Winston} He had tried repeatedly to raise Chance. "Chance, can you hear me?" … "Chance please respond?" … "Can you hear me?" … "Chance!" … Nothing but silence came back to him over the wire tap. The last thing he had heard was a loud explosion, then nothing. He didn't know if they were even alive. Chance and Chloe had been on their way back in after successfully locating and 'stealing' one of the shipments. With that as proof they should be able to get Webb locked up for a long time. But they had been waylaid coming out of the shipping office. Webb had brought help to take care of his "problem." His help had been heavily armed and Chance and Mrs. Stoddard had been forced away from their vehicle. They had finally been trapped in front of a 6 story building which housed a scuba shop on the bottom floor. Chance had broken through the door and they had both retreated to the second floor to await help. But it had backfired on them. The men after them knew they had little time, so they had put together some Molotov cocktails and proceeded to throw them into and around the entire building starting the whole building on fire. Chance had been retreating further up the stairwell when the bottom floor exploded. There had been a small explosion and then a huge one following that, apparently from the oxygen tanks and other scuba containers in the shop below. At that point Winston had lost contact. Police and fire trucks wee already on the way, if it wasn't already too late.

{Guerrero} His job this go around had been easy so far. Winston had brought him in on this one to get the dirt on this Samuel Webb guy. It was easy money—the guy hadn't covered his tacks at all. The "missing" shipments coincided with large sums of money being deposited into his account. And open and closed case. That is until Chance had got himself stuck in a firefight, with his client alongside. If they had asked his opinion he would have told them they didn't even need the stolen shipments as proof…he had found enough to put the guy away for some time. But they didn't ask him. So here he was now on his way to Chance's location for, hopefully, a quick extraction. He was hungry so he hoped it didn't take long. Winston had already called the cops, so he had to make it there and get them out before the law arrived. He figured he had maybe 10 minutes at best. His thoughts about the extraction were abruptly ended when the explosion took place. Winston's frantic pleas for a response unnerved him a bit, but he didn't bother to reply. Chance was either alive or dead and nothing he could say would do any good. He was almost there. The vehicle swung around the corner, almost tipping onto two wheels, and the building was in sight. Black smoke was pouring from the bottom as the fire worked its way up the building. He had to work fast if he was going to get Chance out of there. Assuming he was still alive….

{Chance} He had finally located the roof access, but it was boarded up. He had found an old rusty crowbar and was prying the boards off as fast as he possibly could. The smoke was getting thicker by the minute, and his lungs felt like they were on fire. He had laid Chloe down flat on the floor to take advantage of the semi smoke free air down low. She had moved a few times, but had not come all the way around yet. He continued tearing boards off, finally breaking through to the heavy metal door. He slammed the crowbar down on the padlock and it popped off easily and the door swung open. He dashed out into the fresh air and took a couple deep breathes of fresh air, then ducked back inside to grab Chloe. He carried her out quickly, and then returned back into the smoke filled air to retrieve some items that he had located while he was searching for a way out. He brought out an aluminum extendable ladder, some rope, a couple of tarps, and a chair. He wondered if he could rig up a parachute of some sort. The ladder was way to short for 6 stories high, but he had brought it anyway. He finally collapsed into a coughing fit onto the floor of the roof near Chloe. His head was still one loud buzz, and he grabbed for is ears to cover them and try to lessen the pain somewhat. But his hands came away wet with blood. 'Great, busted eardrums.' He thought. His head felt a bit like it was in a bench vise, with the pressure getting tighter. Best to get off this roof before the whole building is engulfed….or collapses entirely. He stood up and wobbled over to the edge of the roof. He ducked back away as the gunmen below spotted him. 'Just great, trapped on a burning building with no way off.' He had to rest just for a second, as he sat down next to Chloe and rested his head in his hands.

{Winston} The wire was still working, though he had not heard a word from Chance. He could hear occasional coughing and other sounds that he could not identify. Hopefully they weren't trapped. He could only wonder why Chance wasn't responding, but since he was hearing movement he could only hope for the best. Guerrero had just arrived on the scene.

"This place is going up fast, dude."

"Any sign of Chance?" asked Winston hopefully.

"Not yet. Let me take care of these guys first." And Guerrero's radio went silent again.

Winston looked at his watch—less than 10 minutes had passed since the explosion. It had felt more like 10 years.

Guerrero's voice came back to him. "Two down and the others are bugging out."

"Can you get into the building?"

"No way dude, another 10 minutes and the whole building is going to be gone."

Winston stood up and started pacing. They had to get Chance out of there, but how?

{Guerrero} He was rapidly dashing up the stairs in the building next to the one on fire. He knew that if Chance was still alive that he would head for the roof first. He wasn't too sure what he was going to be able to do once he reached the top, but he had to do SOMETHING. This building was taller than the other by a good 3 floors, so when he reached the 6th floor he made his way to the south window where he could see the roof of the other building at last. What he saw made him catch his breath.

"Winston, they are both alive- they made it to the roof."

Winston's relief came clear over the radio. "Are they ok? Can you reach them?"

"Stand by dude." Guerrero slid the window open, and yelled over to Chance. The buildings were about 15 feet apart or so, but Chance did not respond to his yell. He was just sitting next to Chloe, and she was propped up against what he assumed was an air vent turbine. He yelled again. Still no response. Worry started to churn his stomach. Maybe he was really hurt, though from his viewpoint 25 feet away Chance looked ok. He finally saw him stagger to his feet and reach for a ladder.

"Winston, Chance is moving, but I can't get him to respond to me." Guerrero ducked back inside the open window and looked for something, anything to throw. He caught sight of a plastic water bottle half full. 'Going to have to work' he thought. He leaned back out the window and threw the bottle at Chance as hard as he could.

{Chance} After catching a couple minutes rest Chance finally had an idea. His mind was fuzzy and he wasn't really sure if the cause was smoke inhalation or if it was a result of the explosion. Either way his brain was slow to think of a way out of this mess. He spied the ladder he had brought out. The smoke was starting to get thick again and he had felt the building shudder from what he assumed were more explosions. That or the building was already ready to collapse. Assuming fire trucks were on the way, they would never get here in time to help them. It was up to him alone to get them both out of this situation. He stood up slowly, and then bent over to lift the ladder up. Maybe it would reach the building next door. He had just picked the ladder up when he was hit by something, and then felt liquid ooze down him. He caught sight of the water bottle that had been thrown, and he turned around, looking for the culprit. To his relief he saw Guerrero waving to him from a window in the opposite building. He was hollering at him, as Chance could see his mouth moving, but nothing registered over the roar in his ears. Chance toted the ladder towards Guerrero's position, pointed at his ears and shook his head carefully. Hopefully Guerrero would figure it out. He was pretty smart, despite what Winston thought….

{Winston}He had finally allowed himself to have a little hope. That Chance and Chloe were both alive was encouraging, but there were still in a boatload of trouble. He did a double take when he realized he was hearing Guerrero through Chance's tap.

He quickly contacted him. "I can hear you through Chance—what's going on up there?"

No response was forthcoming, so he asked the same question again, only louder. At least this time it got a huffy response.

"Hold on dude, I'm busy."

"Busy with what? What's happening?" Winston demanded

A full minute of silence passed before he got his answer. "Dude, I think the explosion ruptured his eardrums."

"Excuse me?" Winston came back puzzled

"Chance…..he's bleeding from both ears. I think that's why he's not responding to his set."

Winston closed his eye and muttered. "Oh, God." Then out loud, "Can you get him out of there? And what about Chloe? Is she injured?"

Guerrero's response was typical. "Working on it dude."

This was what Winston hated about this job. The sitting and waiting. Nothing that he could do would help this situation. He considered heading over that way but decided to stay put for the moment.

{Guerrero} Chance had worked his way towards him after being hit by the exploding water bottle. He had then pointed at his ears and shook his head. Now that he was closer Guerrero could see the blood coming from both of his ears. 'One thing at a time' he thought. 'At least he's on his feet for now.'

Chance did look a bit unsteady on his legs, but there was not much he could do from this side. Chance was tying rope on one end of the ladder. He then telescoped the ladder out a few feet, and threw the end of the rope to Guerrero. Guerrero barely had time to catch it. Then Chance raised the ladder and let it fall straight towards him. The ladder missed the window on the way down, but the rope he had in his hands stopped the ladders fall and he pulled it back up and placed it on the window sill. Chance was already back to Chloe and was slapping her face gently in an attempt to wake her, but he had no success. He growled at himself because he was trapped on this side and he felt useless…..

{Chance} Chloe was still out of it. She moaned and tossed her head but those pretty green eyes of hers had stayed closed. There was no way that flimsy aluminum ladder would hold their combined weight at the same time. His smoke addled brain had an idea. He motioned to Guerrero for the rope back. It took him a couple of seconds to catch the drift, but Guerrero quickly untied the rope from the ladder and tossed it back to Chance. Chance retrieved one of the tarps he had salvaged and laid it out flat on the roof. He then laid Chloe on top of the tarp and started wrapping the tarp around her, securing it with rope. He carried her to the ladder in her cocoon of sorts and placed her on the ladder with her head facing Guerrero. He tossed the end of the rope back to Guerrero. The window that Guerrero was standing in was a shade lower than the roof so they should be able to pull her down the ladder, or at least that was the idea. The roof was becoming more unstable and the whole building shuddered, causing Chance to fall. He desperately waved at Guerrero to pull the rope and as he did Chloe slid bumping down the ladder to the other side. As soon as she was on the other side and Guerrero was sliding her through the window to safety Chance laid out flat on the ladder and started scooting himself across a bit at a time until he made the other side. Guerrero pulled him in the window head first, and slid him to a heap on the floor.

{Winston} Guerrero's one sided conversation with Chance assured him that they were still alive. He could finally hear sirens in the distance over the headset. 'Sure did take their sweet time' he thought. He heard fragments as Guerrero worked to get both of them to safety. Guerrero had informed him that Chance had a ladder he was trying to connect the buildings with. His constant questions had finally been met with a "Shut up, dude." And he had unwillingly shut up and just listened. He heard a few words coming from Guerrero now and then. "Ok, I got it……….she's coming……..ok, you next……hurry!!!"......then a loud rumble filled the headset and Winston again broke the silence.

"Guerrero?"

Silence.

"GUERRERO?!" What's going on?????"

Still nothing.

Then a welcome "I have them both dude."

"Are they ok?"

"Ok being relative, then yeah."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Winston shot back

"I think we need an ambulance, but they aren't going to die on me anytime soon."

"Got it, ambulance on the way." Winston dialed 911 again. As soon as he had the ambulance called for he would be on his way too. He was tired of doing nothing.

{Guerrero} He had pulled Chloe in the window and moved her out of the way just as Chance started over on the ladder. He spread himself at full length and inched over a bit at a time so the ladder would not crumple in the middle. As Chance got close enough he reached out and grabbed his soot covered shit and pulled him all the way in the window. The ladder lost contact with the roof on the other side and tumbled to the ground as the building they had just escaped from started its downward tumble with a loud roar. Chloe was coming around slowly, wondering why she was trussed up like a butterfly in a cocoon. Chance slowly sat up from the floor where he had tossed him, coughing the whole time. He was covered in black soot, with holes in his shirt where embers had burnt though. Other than the ears, he appeared uninjured. He left Chance to his own for a moment while he unwrapped Chloe from her cocoon. It had been a brilliant idea to get her over, he had to admit. But right now he needed to get both of them downstairs to meet the ambulance. Once Chloe was free he eased back over to Chance who had stopped hacking and was leaning against the wall under the window with his eyes closed. "I'm taking Chloe down to meet the ambulance, sit tight and I'll be right back." He knew Chance didn't hear him but Winston could. He grasped Chance's shoulder and was rewarded by two eyes meeting his. He motioned to Chloe and pointed at the stairs. Chance nodded once, then coughed and closed his eyes once again. Guerrero took off for the stairs with Chloe.

{Chance} He didn't want to do anything but suck in the fresh, clean air. Unfortunately his lungs didn't quite agree with him and would send him into uncontrolled bouts of coughing. The coughing would then in turn cause black spots to dance in front of his eyes, so he kept them closed. He was aware enough to realize that Chloe was safe. Guerrero was moving about him, and he opened his eyes briefly to see him untying her from the tarp. He was just so tired. Guerrero could handle things from here on out. He felt a hand on his shoulder and Guerrero was kneeling in front of him. His lips were moving and he motioned to Chance his intentions. Chance understood he was taking Chloe out of here and he nodded his consent. 'When he gets back up here we'll have to move-but I can rest until then' He coughed one more time and then closed his eyes. 'Just a minute of rest…..

{Winston} He was on his way now to the scene, wondering to himself why he hadn't headed that way to start with. But he knew why. He hadn't wanted to come this way in case Chance had really bought it. He didn't think he could handle it if that happened. Chance was always getting into tough scrapes, but this one had been really close. Now that everything was over he could breathe again. Guerrero would probably need his help as he had two people to tend to. He could at least give him a hand. It seemed like this ordeal had taken hours, but in actuality only about a half an hour had passed. He was about 10 minutes away now. In fact he would probably beat the ambulance there.

{Guerrero} He had left Chloe at one of the fire trucks that was now on the scene. There wasn't anything left of the building that Chance had been in but burning rubble. The firefighters were working on getting the blaze under control, mainly to keep it from spreading to the other buildings. He was a bit breathless, and Chloe's care had been taken over by a firefighter. They were putting an oxygen mask over her face now and checking her over for burns. 'Great idea' he thought as he walked around to the other side of the tuck to 'borrow' another mask and container. Then he started back up the stairs after Chance. He was really out of breath by the time he made it to the top again. Chance had slid sideways onto the floor and at first he thought he was unconscious. But as he placed the oxygen mask over his face his eyes opened and he gave Guerrero a half smile.

"Ok, dude, let's get you out of here."

He helped him sit up, and then with a little help Chance was on his feet, leaning on him for support. The trip down the stairs was agonizingly slow. Chance wasn't moving very fast and leaning more and more weight onto him as they descended. He was really worried Chance was going to collapse on him before they reached the bottom. 'Got to get him down now.'

{Chance} 'Air, sweet cool air' was his first thought. He felt the mask over his face and opened up his eyes to see a rather worried Guerrero hovering above him. He tried to smile at him to reassure him a bit, and to his surprise he heard a faint sound as Guerrero moved his lips. It wasn't enough to tell what exactly he said, but at least his hearing was coming back. That was a plus. Guerrero pulled at him and he took the hint to get into a sitting position, and with a little more help he was on his feet. A bit unsteady, but Guerrero was there to lean on. He just hoped his energy would last all the way down the stairs. He felt like he had run a marathon already. He lost track of how many flights of stairs they had descended. They seemed innumerable as he navigated one step after another. His energy was flagging and he knew he wasn't going to be upright much longer. The stairs were starting to tilt and he thought Guerrero was speaking to him, but he cared little about anything but not falling headfirst down a flight of stairs. His bid to make it down on his own two feet ended rapidly. Black spots danced before his eyes, and everything went fuzzy as his legs collapsed out from under him. Guerrero pulled at him in an effort to keep them both upright, but Chance outweighed him and they both toppled headfirst down the stairs.

{Winston} He had just pulled in behind one of the fire trucks when Guerrero's breathless voice came over the wire.

"I need help here dude, I don't think we're going to make it down before he collapses."

"I'm just outside—where are you?" as Winston flashed his 'badge' at a cop now holding spectators back. It worked as the policeman let him through without really glancing at him.

"South stairwell. We're over halfway down." Came back the breathless reply once again.

Winston started to dash toward the stairs in question. He took the stairs two at a time, and was turning the corner to start up the next set of stairs when Guerrero and Chance came tumbling towards him. He managed to stop their headfirst flight, but they all ended up in one heap at the bottom.

"Thanks for the soft landing." Guerrero quipped at him, as he got up off of Winston. Winston glared at him, and then rolled Chance, who was still on top of him, off to the side. His eyes were open, but glassy.

"Hold on, we're going to get you out of here." he spoke to Chance, not knowing if he could hear him at all but it made him feel better to talk.

Together they both got Chance back onto his feet for the last flight of stairs, but before they could move a step he went limp on them. Guerrero flashed a worried look at Winston, who then hefted Chance over his shoulder. They emerged outside to absolute chaos and headed for the SUV that Winston had driven over. Winston slowly slid Chance off his shoulder into a sitting position and propped him up against the front tire. Paramedics flooded towards them, pushing them both out of the way as they started working on Chance. Within minutes they had a stretcher and were loading him onto it. Winston glanced at Guerrero and in silent agreement Winston hopped into the ambulance with Chance.

{Guerrero} He watched the ambulance drive away, and then moved towards the SUV to get it out of the way. Winston would watch over Chance while he cleaned up the mess from this one. He figured Chance would be in the hospital for a few days over this. Ruptured ear drums were not going to heal overnight and Winston would want to stay with him. In part to make sure he didn't do anything stupid, but also because he would worry about him. Anytime Chance ended up in the hospital one of them would stay with him at all times. Chance had too many people looking for him to risk leaving him unprotected in a public environment. Although honestly, Guerrero had to admit, Chance was his own worst enemy. It was hard protecting him from himself at times. He would finish up here and then get some grub and head to the hospital. Winston was bound to be hungry, and he was literally famished now. One more trip up that stairs and he would have passed out himself.

{Chance} Time blended together, and his last coherent thought had been hazy at best. He recalled Guerrero being there, of his stumbling effort down the stairs, and of the images of fire. The fire was all around him now, the sound of flames crackling and getting louder and louder until it filled his whole head. Then he was falling towards the fire, endlessly falling. He jerked awake to people rushing all around him. A mask was over his face and sounds all blurred into one as he struggled, overtaken by panic. Finally Winston's face came into view and his mouth was moving as he shouted "Breathe!! Breathe!!" 'Breathe?' he could do that. Slowly the panic from his dream faded and oxygen started to fill his lungs. The frantic commotion around him calmed as well. He could hear faintly the beeping of the heart machine in the background, with other murmurs and words blending together. He struggled to sit up and was rewarded when one of the nurses came over and moved his bed into a half sitting position. He could now see Winston sitting on the right hand side of his bed. The nurse straightened his mask, before turning and following the others out the door. As soon as she was out of sight Chance reached up and attempted to remove the mask so that he could ask Winston about Chloe. His motion was stopped as Winston brushed his hand away from the mask and said in a loud voice "Keep that on." Chance tried talking through the mask, "Chloe?" he asked. Or at least he thought he asked. He couldn't even hear his own voice. He wasn't sure if that was because he had talked and couldn't hear it, or if he had lost his voice as well. Either way Winston must have figured out what he asked, as he moved closer and hollered out. "Everything is fine. Chloe is safe at home, Webb is in jail." Chance nodded that he understood. There was more he would have liked to ask, but his body felt like it was wrapped in cotton. It was such a warm cozy feeling that he didn't care to move at all. His job was complete, so he let himself drift back into a healing sleep.

{Winston} As Chance drifted off Winston sat back into his not so comfortable hospital chair. He figured they made these things uncomfortable on purpose. They didn't want people like him hovering over their patients. Sometimes Winston thought back on his time in the force and though how peaceful it had been, in retrospect, to his life now. In all honesty, he wouldn't trade his life now for the one he had back then. True, he was trying to keep a guy alive who was attracted to danger like a moth to a flame. He insisted on jumping off cliffs, fighting guerrillas, blowing up buildings and just in general getting beaten up on a regular basis. He got a rush from some of the jobs, though he would never admit it to Guerrero, or even Chance for that matter. It was his job to keep his ex-criminal partner safe. Chance watched out for everyone but his own self and Winston protected Chance. 'Yeah, it was one heck of a job.' Winston thought as he settled further into his chair. But as he looked over at Chance who was sleeping peacefully now, he wouldn't trade it for the world.

The End

Well I hope you guys liked this one. A lot less dialogue in this one, but more action. Please leave me reviews so I will know you guys want more This story is complete but I have another longer one in the making if you guys approve of this one. For those of you who don't know- Human Target has yet to be renewed by Fox. The decision is to come around May 17th. So PLEASE email FOX and voice your support for the show! One last thing for those of you who like H/C-- there is a pretty decent Music vid on You tube. Go there and type in Human Target- I Don't Care. Enjoy!!


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